McCaskill ethics complaint filed

Missouri Republicans have filed a complaint against Sen. Claire McCaskill with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, calling for an investigation into whether the Missouri Democrat improperly used taxpayer funding to cover the cost of at least one airplane trip to a political event.

McCaskill, who is up for reelection in 2012, paid more than $88,000 to the Treasury Department last week after a POLITICO report that she had used taxpayer funds from her Senate office account to repay nearly 90 flights on a private plane that she co-owned with her husband and other investors.

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While McCaskill and her aides adamantly denied any ethical violations despite the payment to Treasury, POLITICO later reported that at least one of the flights was purely political in nature.

On Saturday, March 3, 2007, McCaskill flew from St. Louis to Hannibal, Mo., and back, for the local Democratic Party’s annual Hannibal Days. McCaskill billed taxpayers $1,220.44 for the trip, according to public records. McCaskill aides have acknowledged that the event was only political in nature, not an official function for a senator. Congressional ethics rules and federal law bar the use of taxpayer funds to cover the cost of political events.

Lloyd Smith, executive director of the Missouri Republican Party, said he had filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee urging the panel to look into the trips.

“The rule is pretty clear. There is a way you can use a private aircraft,” Smith told reporters during a Tuesday conference call. “It’s obvious there’s been thousands and thousands of taxpayer dollars going to a private entity. How much does she benefit from that vis-a-vis making money on the aircraft is not something that we know.”

Smith added: “[McCaskill] only sent the money back to the government once the curtain was pulled aside and you can see she used taxpayer dollars for political purposes.”

McCaskill’s office responded to news of the complaint called the ordeal a “mistake,” which the senator worked swiftly to correct.

“After taxpayer money was returned for 89 flights that were all reimbursed according to ethical guidelines, one of those flights was discovered to be of political nature,” a spokesperson for McCaskill said. “Sen. McCaskill was beyond embarrassed and acknowledged the mistake right away. If the situation had not already been fixed, we would fix it again. Sen. McCaskill is sorry for this mistake, and she has never been afraid to acknowledge a mistake.”

The spokeswoman accused the Missouri Republican Party of having obvious ulterior motives.

“What’s happening today is campaign politics 101 - find an issue that’s already been rightfully acknowledged and fixed, and make it newsworthy again through an accusation,” the spokesperson said. “The reasons to file a complaint like this are to confirm a problem and fix it, which has been done. This reason it’s being done today is nothing more than a political stunt.”

The aircraft in question, a twin-engine Piper, is actually owned by Sunset Cove Associates LLC, a company incorporated in 2002 by McCaskill’s husband, St. Louis businessman Joe Shepard. That company is in turn linked to another Delaware-based corporation, Timesaver LLC, which was created in July 2006, during McCaskill’s successful run for the Senate against Republican Jim Talent.

Missouri Republicans have repeatedly pressed McCaskill and Shepard to release more details - including tax returns - for his business interests. Shepard owns dozens of small companies as part of his extensive real-estate holdings. The couples’ worth is estimated at $15.5 million, at a minimum, according to an analysis of McCaskill’s annual financial disclosure records.